King Benjamin
King Benjamin (better known as Ben) is a character who appears in the Disney film Descendants, portrayed by Mitchell Hope. He is the son of Queen Belle and King Beast from Beauty and the Beast. Background Personality Prince Ben is good natured and he has been stated to represent a sense of fairness. His first proclamation after having taken the throne is to offer a chance at redemption to the trouble-making offspring of Cruella De Vil (Carlos), Maleficent (Mal), The Evil Queen (Evie) and Jafar (Jay), who have been imprisoned on a forbidden island (Isle of the Lost), which shows that he is not judgemental and is willing to give people a chance. Occasionally, when angered he has a tendency to growl like a beast. (He gets this as a gene from his father.) He sees the good in people. Physical Appearance Ben has been described as tall and handsome with brown hair and blue eyes. Appearances Descendants One month before being coronated King, Ben informs his parents of his first royal decree: to give the children of the Isle of the Lost a chance at redemption and to attend Auradon Prep. To ensure the safety of both his plan and the citizens, he decides to start small with the children who need the help most - Carlos, Jay, Evie and Mal. He tries his best to befriend them and help, but his girlfriend Audrey is completely unwelcoming and takes him away, forcing Doug to take care of the tour and explanations. Having been told how terrible Maleficent was in the past, Ben attempts reaching out to Mal the most. Because of this, he begins developing affection for her. He also helps get both Jay and Carlos on the Tourney Team. Unaware of the kids' mission to steal Fairy Godmother's wand, Ben is tricked by Mal into eating a cookie laced with a love potion. This actually proves helpful as this allows him to break up with Audrey and date Mal, finding they have more in common. On a date, Ben swims in an enchanted lake, which removes the love spell from him. After Mal attempts to save him, thinking he drowned, he tells her that he can see her inner goodness is stronger than the evil she's descended from. He continues faking being under the spell, but genuinely shows love for her as the day of his coronation nears. On the day he is to be crowned king, Ben rides in a carriage with Mal, who gives him a cupcake with the antidote in it. Once he eats it, he reveals that he's truly in love with her. During the ceremony, Jane steals the wand to use its magic to improve her looks. Unfortunately, the wand releases a blast of magic that undoes the barrier around the Isle of the Lost, allowing Maleficent to escape and attempt stealing the wand. Frozen in time, Ben is left happily surprised when the spell is undone thanks to Mal, Jay, Evie and Carlos, who used their combined goodness to shrink Dragon Maleficent to the size of gecko. Descendants 2 Descendants 3 Descendants: Wicked World Ben returns in the animated short series Descendants: Wicked World, voiced by Mitchell Hope who also portrayed him in the live-action film. Trivia * According to the film, his middle name is Florian. He is captain of the Tourney Team, and he is 16 years old. * In the prequel book, at the end (which takes place right before the film), it is revealed he had a dream of being inside the Isle of the Lost and meeting a purple-haired green-eyed girl. Mal also had a dream, set near the Enchanted Lake and being "on the stone floor of an ancient temple ruin" with Ben (whom she never met or seen prior to the dream and meeting him). ** The prelude also confirms that Ben takes after his mother more than his father; he shares her interests in books and reading and is more of a gentle soul in comparison to his father. * Since Mal is 16-years-old, and Ben is "turning 16" by the time he makes his proclamation, Ben is younger than her by a few to several months. * Near the end of the film, Ben reveals that he didn't fake his affection for Mal after the love spell was washed away in the Enchanted Lake. * In 'Disney Descendants Yearbook', Ben's "Secret Wish" is to live happily ever after while his "Not-so-secret Wish" is to see everyone in Auradon treated the same, regardless of what their parents have done in the past. * Similar to names of Maleficent and Mal using the root word "mal-" based on the word "malevolent" meaning "bad" and/or "evil", Ben's name serves as a contrast using the root word "ben-" from the word "benevolent" which means "kind and generous" like how the character is portrayed. ** He starts off with Audrey as his girlfriend, but they break up because Ben confesses (under the love spell) that he loves Mal at the end of the tourney game. It is later revealed, after the spell wears off in the Enchanted Lake and before his coronation, that he didn't fake anything after it wore off. ** When he jumped into the river, he roared like a beast as a reference is his father, and also at his coronation when Maleficent tried stealing the magic wand. ** Ben could be named after the Latin root, bene-, meaning good, and Mal's name means evil, so the idea of the story, "good and evil", is reinforced. ** It was revealed that Ben had a dream where he sees a girl who was looking exactly like Mal, that's why he decide to invite the villains kids to Auradon and give them redemption. When he meet Mal she was exactly like the girl he saw in his dream. ** He does vocals on 3 songs ("Did I Mention", "Be Our Guest", "Set It Off"). ** His full first name is Benjamin. ** Florian is his middle name. Florian is the name of Snow White's Prince in some media. This could've been the inspiration for the middle name. ** His signature colors are Blue and Yellow, the same theme color as his parents'. Gallery Category:Characters Category:Males Category:Students Category:Main Characters Category:Monarchs Category:Descendants Characters Category:Royalty